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Three-story scaffolding hints that painting in the courthouse is ahead of schedule

LAFAYETTE — It's not much of a silver lining, but with an eye to the sunny side of the coronavirus stay-at-home order, painting of the ceiling of the courthouse's rotunda is ahead of schedule.

Scaffolding starting on the second floor and running three floors up through the center of the building went up March 27. From the fourth floor, workers climb to a makeshift platform, where they scraped off the cracked and chipped paint at the ceiling.

The began scraping and sanding earlier week and started priming on Friday, Tippecanoe County Commissioner Tracy Brown said.

The painting will begin on Monday, Brown said.

The painting was one of the tasks of the $2.5 million renovations to the courthouse that were approved late in January. The renovations will create a new courtroom for Tippecanoe Superior 7, which is a new court that opens on Jan. 1, 2021.

The painting of the rotunda ceiling required constructing a four-story scaffolding running through the openings of the third and fourth floors.

"They are actually slightly ahead of schedule with the painting," Brown said.

With all trials canceled in the COVID-19 emergency and the number of court hearings reduced to only the necessary ones, the courthouse is nearly deserted.

Without having to work around people coming and going in the courthouse, crew managed for faster-than-expected setup of the scaffolding, and workers began preparing the ceiling earlier this week for paint, Brown said.

With Gov. Eric Holcomb extending the stay-at-home order until April 21, Brown expects the rotunda painting project to be finished in a couple of weeks.

All of the painting, the construction of new courtrooms and installation of new audio and recording equipment is expected to be finished before the end of the year, Brown said.